Minimally invasive medical techniques (e.g., laparoscopy) have been used to reduce the amount of extraneous tissue which may be damaged during diagnostic or surgical procedures, thereby reducing patient recovery time, discomfort, and deleterious side effects. Such techniques were traditionally performed manually via a surgeon manipulating various surgical instruments within the patient's body, but can now by implemented using teleoperated robotic systems that provide telepresence. Performing minimally invasive surgery with teleoperated robotic systems facilitates increased precision and range of motion in manipulating surgical instruments when compared to manual techniques, but also introduces new challenges. One such challenge is the need to manufacture, assemble, and tune (or “pre-tension”) surgical instruments. Pre-tensioning tension actuation elements, such as cables or cable-hypotube combinations, enables the instruments' end effectors at the surgical site to respond rapidly and accurately to remote actuating signals. Conventional mechanically actuated surgical instruments include steering input devices that can be prohibitively expensive to produce in certain applications because they include multiple intricate components that must be machined to precise tolerances. Further, their means of assembly tends to make multi-step pre-tensioning procedures cumbersome and difficult to automate.